It's far more fun and visually interesting for combat to take place in a more complex environment (rings and asteroid fields for example). Might it be worth having rare events where stations and outposts are under attack and it's your job to repel the attackers. Docking would be impossible until the threat is taken care of. It just strikes me as a fun thing that might not be too hard to implement. Outposts in particular have loads of interesting geometry for cat-and-mouse combat.
Thoughts?
Thoughts?